Hey gang. Just a heads up, things are going to remain quiet around here for a while. I have a bunch of travel coming up through October and the big Society for News Design conference on Sept. 29-Oct. 1, which I’m co-directing. So I apologize for the quiet time.

If you join us in St. Louis though, I think you’ll find it was worth it and if you register for SND STL before August 31, you can save $100. Come kick it with me and amazing folks like Matt Thompson and Robin Sloan in a very rare, public appearance together, where they’ll be releasing a new project, exclusively announced at SND STL.

It’s going to be an amazing shindig with the most mobile and tablet training out of any journalism conference in the country this year. We’ll soon have more than 80 speakers representing organizations with diverse audiences from The Onion to ESPN, sizes from The Joplin Globe to The New York Times, and varied content topics from “Milk Eggs Vokda” to Readers Digest, in more than 40 sessions.

The entire conference and speakers will focus on presenting inspiring and/or practical tools and training with all sorts of fun stuff planned to make this the best conference, ever in the history of the earth: print and digital design, 10-story-slides, data visualization, comics journalism, interactive mapping, gooey butter cake, career advice, social media, pub crawls, news app development, bootstrapping media projects and much more planned — all of this for an amazing price, especially when you compare the total cost to other journalism conferences (and their hotels rates that for two days cost more than an iPad).

Learn more and please help spread the word: sndstl.com

I’m excited to announce that after 5 years of co-chairing the NPPA Multimedia Immersion, we’re back for another intense workshop and this year we’re going to have both Canon and Nikon as sponsors!

Here’s the official NPPA Multimedia announcement & more info on how to get in on the fun:

The 2011 NPPA Multimedia Immersion in Syracuse, NY will be an intense, five-day, hands-on training workshop for visual journalists looking to expand and grow their multimedia skillsets using the latest technology.

Our focus is on mixing photos, video and audio content and editing them into multimedia presentations.

Our previous students have ranged from multiple Pulitzer Prize Winners, Best of Photojournalism winners, the current White House Photographer, academics, editors, students, working professionals and freelancers all looking to supercharge their careers.

Looking back, it’s amazing to see how students over years have evolved and grown from the workshop. It’s really inspiring and humbling. We’re still working on the schedule and especially trying to recruit an awesome group of diverse coaches, but in the mean time, if you’re interested, you should move quick.

We’re limited to 40 students for 20 awesome coaches, so if you’re looking for the best multimedia training for your buck, do it to it.

When one of the smartest people I know, Matt Thompson, suggested I run for the ONA board a couple years ago and I blushed and didn’t think too much of it. I knew I wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility, didn’t have the time required and I needed to get more leadership and management experience before I could make that jump.

This year, with his nomination, I know I’m ready to step up and make a difference helping this organization. I’m in a place where I can contribute and believe it’s the perfect time in journalism history for me to step up and help lead the organization forward on one of the most mission critical platforms — emerging mobile and tablet technology. I’d appreciate your support and your vote.

It’s been amazing watching the organization grow throughout my career. I’ve been volunteering, attending and involved in ONA since the Evanston/Chicago conference back in 2003 where I worked with Rich Gordon and Erik Ulken to create the event website (I was the only photographer /photo editor and ended up only sleeping a few hours that weekend). They don’t even have the archived website from back then it was so long ago –was way before Youtube, Facebook and Foursquare.

While many other journalism organizations are having a tough time and losing strength, members and impact, ONA has grown strong and I believe the organization is at a pivotal position to lead the future of journalism. I want to do everything I can to make that a bright and fruitful future.

I realize I’m an underdog in this race going up against six incumbents and another 16 (!) new candidates in many different disciplines and backgrounds for only seven seats. I’m the youngest candidate. I don’t live in DC where a large core of the current leaders reside; I don’t even live on one of the coasts where larger media organizations tend to set up shop. I’m introverted, socially awkward, not a very snazzy dresser and perhaps worst of all, I have a last name starting with an “S.” [As anyone knows who has reviewed ANY sort of click maps or eye tracking on web analytics, very few people read to the bottom of web pages. So those of us doomed to that fate on the candidates page won't enjoy the same name recognition of those blessed with a YPO name (Yellow Page Optimized).]

Hopefully the voting mechanism has some sort of randomizer that mixes up display of the candidates or people are really serious about their ONA Board candidates and they can make the dozens of full page scrolls to the bottom of the list.

So I guess that’s what I’m asking for: Please vote and please read the profiles, vision statements and know who/what you’re voting for. The next two years are going to be huge for the future of journalism so the decision of who’s going to lead this organization does really matter. Especially finding people who are really participating, leading and actively sharing ideas in the conversation about the future of news.

I have outlined my seven pilars of growth for ONA below (pasted from the ONA site) that will make a major difference in the organization and journalism’s future. Please give it a read. I’d love your feedback and thoughts. Please read over all the vision statements from all the nominees before you cast your vote.

Seven Areas of Growth for ONA:

MOBILE – Expand the organization’s focus, leadership and membership to include mobile journalism as a major priority equal to that of web journalism. Many journalism organizations dragged their feet committing to the web and we cannot make this same mistake when it comes to the sweeping societal, media and technological changes mobile experiences will bring to our audiences.

INNOVATION & IDEA SHARING – Produce more regular news content and information for members (and the industry in general) through the website and social media. Content would include: Monthly spotlights showcasing member’s best practices and innovative approaches, tech tutorials and training resources, crowd-sourced recommendations and reviews on journalism tools and vendors, online journalism issue discussion and more.

ADVOCACY – Become a stronger voice and advocate in the issues affecting the future of digital journalism including: freedom of information and open data requests, net neutrality, photographer and videographer rights, digital copyright and intellectual property issues, privacy and more.

LOCALIZE – Building more regional or city-based chapters and activities — like the incredibly successful ONA DC group has done — continue supporting the chapters in major media cities, but also look for opportunities to grow membership in local regional groups outside of the coasts or tied to journalism schools

PARTNERS – Expand partnerships with other organizations both in and out of journalism to help lead the industry and benefit both memberships (such as AIGA, South by Southwest Interactive, O’Reilly Tech conferences, etc.)

MEMBERSHIP – Focus on recruiting and growing youth and diversity within the organization membership and leadership both with demographics, organization types and locations. Reach out to minority journalism groups with opportunities for partnerships, potentially discounted memberships and more.

GIVING BACK – Find opportunities to share, donate and educate others on media literacy and technological skills — particularly with youth, women and minorities through community groups and schools to help bridge some of the cultural, gender and social gaps.

My focus isn’t just limited to these topics. I have been asking members at the convention what they’d like to see in the future of the organization and received a lot of great feedback — from strategies on hosting local events, to ideas on how to cut costs/save members money for attending events, to simple things like instituting some sort of term limit for board members to help bring more fresh ideas through the leadership. If you’re attending (or even if you’re not) I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for the organization. Holler at me at the convention, on Twitter, Facebook or email me: will @ journerdism.com

If I don’t get the green light to join the board, that’s totally fine; I’ve been amazed by the pool of candidates and I am colleagues and friends with many of these people. It’s a fantastically talented and passionate group. I’m happy to have been nominated and that I’ve had the chance to proposed some ideas for growing the organization. Hopefully it will affect change and help the group continue to evolve.

I’ll also fully admit, I have been somewhat critical of the organization before. The conferences for a period of time time were awkward, nervous, hand-wringing events. I wasn’t the only one that felt this way. This has changed a lot and ONA conferences have become a lot more about innovation and looking forward, much less about looking back. The feedback wasn’t because I didn’t like the organization, it was because I saw the amazing potential and I wanted to see it do better. And it is doing much better now. The organization has evolved from a gaggle of journerdists to a dominate force in journalism.

But the garden is never finished.

I’m ready to get my hands dirty.

Voting is open Friday, Oct. 29 until Saturday, Nov. 13th. If you’re an ONA member, please vote. Even if it’s not for me. (Although I would appreciate your support! #Will4ONA)

Winter is a dangerous time for me. I tend to get cabin fever just about the time that many conference and workshop organizers start planning their spring and summer lineups, then I start over-committing myself to a lot of interesting opportunities. It’s definitely an adventure, but makes you squeeze every 24 hour out of every day. This year is no different so far.

I’ll be at Poynter the second week of March teaching at the Essential Skills for Digital Journalists workshop , as well as leading a session for the Leading the New Newsroom: Digital Skills and Strategies for Today’s Managers

Immediately after that I’m heading back to Austin again for South by Southwest Interactive, where I’ll be moderating a panel on “Process Journalism: Getting it first while getting it right” SXSWi is always a blast, there’s a bunch of other cool panels and this one should be an interesting discussion, with the following panelists:

• Monica Guzman, Reporter for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and blogger on The Big Blog
• Brian Lam, Editorial Director for Gizmodo.com and Assistant Managing Editor for Gawker Media (Update 3/1/10: Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo Senior Contributing Editor, will be filling Brian’s spot)
• Charles Latibeaudiere, Co-Executive Producer of TMZ (Update 3/1/10: Charles has to bow out due to a torn ACL.)
• Robert Mackey, New York Times Reporter and Blogger for The Lede Blog
• Moka Pantages, Wikimedia Foundation Communications Officer

After that I’ll be wrapped up in work on our new CMS transition and mobile development projects at the day gig until late April, when St. Louis will be hosting the Illinois Press Photographer Association convention and contest judging.

May will bring the 4th Annual National Press Photographer Association Multimedia Immersion, which I’m co-organizing again. This year we’ll be in Syracuse, New York at Newhouse and focusing more on the use of HD SLR cameras for creating multimedia, which should be a really exciting change.

Then in June, I’m teaching multimedia distribution strategies at the Maine Media Workshops, which should be really interesting. I’ve never done these before so it’ll be a definite adventure and Maine in the early summer will be beautiful.

So if posting around here gets light over the next couple months, that’s what I’ll be up to. If you happen to be near or attending any of these events, please don’t hesitate to make contact and we can grab a beer or something.

Thanks for reading and keep up the good fight.
Will

Multimedia Super Hero, Western Kentucky University Professor, Fulbright Scholar and Multimedia Immersion Teacher, Josh Meltzer, sends word about one of his projects coming up in January, the Truth With a Camera Workshops in Quito, Ecuador. If you’re interested in photojournalism and social justice, definitely check out this great opportunity, registration is open now and filling quickly:

Truth With A Camera workshops is pleased to announce and open registration for the next workshop which will take place in Quito, Ecuador from January 9-17, 2010. Registration is now open, and typically the workshops have filled up fast.

Our mission is to educate photojournalists, not only in current technologies, but in understanding cultural differences and similarities and to contribute to truth, ethics, and social justice.

Our goal is to reflect honesty, sensitivity, and intelligence in photojournalism, and to use these as tools to inspire, educate, and promote change in the world around us.

Through the workshops, photojournalists will experience international location coverage and develop an understanding of their social responsibility to provide a voice to all members of society while stressing truth and ethics in an effort to bring about social change.

With a population of 2 million people, the capital of Ecuador is one of the most modern in the country, although the presence of social inequality and the urban poor remain powerful reminders that thousands of people live below the line of extreme poverty.

This will not be a vacation. During this intensive week, you will work with Ecuadorian students from some of the best universities from across the country. At the end of each day, you will edit your images with some of the leaders in the field of documentary photography from the U.S. and Ecuador. Your work will be shared with our partnering NGOs, which gives you the opportunity for your work to stand as a witness and defense of the lives of your subjects. It is an opportunity to strengthen your skills while donating your work to an NGO at the same time.

www.truthwithacamera.org
www.truthworkshopblog.org